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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25095568">Freedom In Captivity</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeamGwenee/pseuds/TeamGwenee'>TeamGwenee</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Kingslayer's Captive [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>A Song of Ice and Fire &amp; Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 03:22:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,488</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25095568</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeamGwenee/pseuds/TeamGwenee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Jaime Lannister and Brienne of Tarth are both taken captive, and there they find their freedom.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Kingslayer's Captive [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1814104</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>63</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Freedom In Captivity</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>The last proper part of this series. Next segment is an epilogue. Hope you enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The Brotherhood took them. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Jaime’s men had found little sign nor sight of Beric’s gang of outlaws. Only rumours and hearsay of what they might have done, and where they might have gone.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Where they were, and what they were doing, was watching. Watching for the moment to strike, and take the Kingslayer to answer for his crimes.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It did not matter that Brienne, tortured by her decision to still follow Jaime to the Riverlands, could barely stand to be near him, still flinching whenever he came near. When the Brotherhood came for Jaime in a sudden and brutal raid, they found that Brienne gave them no choice but to take her too, or cut her down where she stood.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Brienne was accused of no crime, but once more there were discussions of holding her ransom to her father. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Brienne was tired of being parcelled back and forth, and when the subject of Jaime’s trial arose, there was no placating her. She would she be Jaime’s champion. No words could dissuade her. Not even Jaime’s.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span> Not even when he threw into her face that he was a sister-fucking, oathbreaking, child murdering monster. Not worth her bloodshed. Even then, Brienne remained steadfast in her resolve.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You had better just let it be a courtly trial,” Jaime suggested fruitlessly. “My crimes are so numerous that I will be an old man long before they will have finished listing the charges against me.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That did not sway Brienne either.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Stupid, stubborn brave bitch, Jaime cursed as he watched her from the post he was chained to, preparing herself for her battle.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“If at any point he looks to be winning, yield,” Jaime instructed her. “There is no point in both of us dying.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Do you doubt my skill Ser?” Brienne asked shortly.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No,” Jaime admitted with a snort. “Just your wisdom. Dear Gods, do not throw away your life out of stubbornness. Use that great, dour head of yours for once.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Brienne paused, looking at him truly for the first time in months, her blue eyes gentle and honest once more, instead of closed and cold. Jaime prayed they would be open passed this night.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I promise,” Brienne vowed softly.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Does this mean you do not think me a monster anymore?” Jaime asked curiously.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I do not know what I think of you,” Brienne admitted gruffly. “But I do know you will not die tonight. You have my word.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And although Brienne endured some injuries from the fight that followed, a black eye, cracked rib, and a deep slice to the knee, a broken word was not one of them.</span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>~</span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>The Brotherhood had been acting with more than usuall discretion since they took Brienne and Jaime. With their lord missing, the Lannister men were certain to be brutal with any outlaw that came their way. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Eventually, they accepted Jaime as dead, and unable to find any trace of a great outlaw army, left the Riverlands believing Ser Jaime and Lady Brienne murdered by a small gang of thugs. The legends of Lord Beric rising from the dead only confirmed the facts had been distorted and embroidered in favour of a good myth.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The smallfolk, farmers and goodwives and blacksmiths and innkeeps, lied steadfastly, heads bent and voice humble, all the while hiding Brotherhood men in their basements and waving their sons and daughters to fight alongside them. The Brotherhood’s zest for change spread through the land like a fire, burning across the borders into neighbouring lands.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span> These people, who farmed the lands and worked the mines that the lords grew fat off, who formed the bulk of the armies that the lords wielded control with, were needed by the nobles far more than the nobles needed them. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Something was starting. A shift, a change, one that could not be undone. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And Brienne found changes in herself that were no less irreversible. Changes that began the day she saw the sacked village just off the Roseroad.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>~</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She thought of that village as she watched the Brotherhood string up a landed knight and his men who had set a village to the torch for allowing Lannister troops to take camp there during the War of the Five Kings.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The village had been destroyed years ago, and had been accepted by all as a grim but necessary choice. But the Brotherhood did not. It was murder, and murder had to be met with justice. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Brienne looked at the corpses dancing gently in the breeze. Swaying softly to the melody of some half remembered song their mothers had crooned to sing them to sleep.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Brienne turned to Beric. “How do you know? How do you know when you have gone too far?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Beric turned his tired face to Brienne and smiled. “By asking myself that same question at every step. We can never rest easy that every choice we make is the just one. But to win this war we must outmatch our opponents, and none of us will go to our deathbeds with an unsoiled spirit.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Do you fear the things you will be called upon to do?” Brienne asked. “Do you fear the person you may become?” Brienne shook her head, suddenly so tired. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She thought of Jaime sitting by the fire, laughing at some jest. Those wicked green eyes which could turn so gentle. The boyishness of his smile in those rare moments he could lose himself to joy</span>
  <em>
    <span>.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span> I love him. </span>
  </em>
  <span>She thought. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I love the man who killed his king, broke his vows, fucked his sister, crippled a child and murdered his son. And yet, his son was a king and a monster and to let him live would have been to let him rule.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Perhaps she should go back to Tarth. Run the castle, see to the linen, give alms to the poor. As a good noble daughter does. No doubts, no risks. No chance of finding just how useful she could be.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” Beric said with a smile. “As our nurses used to say. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and those who fight monsters should see he does not become one. They are good proverbs. And true. A wise man takes them as a caution.” Beric took Brienne’s hand and looked at her hard in the eyes. “Wise women take them as a warning. A coward takes them as an excuse.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“An excuse?” Brienne repeated. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Those who care more about never doing wrong, and keeping their own hands clean, than doing right, preventing wrongs and risk getting their hands dirty. Those who might as well not care at all.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>~</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Jaime looked up to see Brienne limping towards him. The first time she approached him willingly, without reluctance or encouragement, since he told her the truth about Joffrey. She would fight for him, die for him, but she could not bear to look at him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She sat beside him, grimacing slightly from the pain of her wounded knee. She would be fully healed soon, enough to ride and return to Jaime’s men, and they would not need to trespass on the Brotherhood’s hospitality much longer.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’re walking better,” Jaime noted with a nod. “And your colour is better too.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Brotherhood had tended to her well. Jaime only wished he could have repaid his debts to her by tending to her as she had once  to him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Jaime,” she whispered, her hushed tone hinting she wished to discuss a matter of some importance.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yes Brienne?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I think,” Brienne said softly, the words picked with care, “That when you slew King Joffrey, you were trying to do the right thing, and if you had not done it, thousands would have suffered under his rule. And whether or not he was your son or your king, it was better that you had done it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Jaime sat back. He couldn’t speak. Couldn’t breathe. To weep would have been a relief. He took Brienne’s hand and kissed her knuckles.  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>~</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Brienne’s leg was healed enough to travel to meet with the Lannister troops once more. The Lannister troops were far enough from the Riverlands that the Brotherhood were comfortable enough to let Brienne and Jaime go. Many still preferred Jaime at least to be kept prisoner, or better yet killed. But Beric insisted it was time to let them go.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“All I ask,” Beric said, “Is that we may have your silence as to the extent of our numbers.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Jaime and Brienne exchanged looks. Jaime knew of Brienne’s feelings, and Brienne knew Jaime’s. In this, they were of one mind, one heart, one soul.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Kingslayer. The Warrior Maid. Neither of them had a place in society. Where did they belong but with outlaws?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We can do you one better than that,” Jaime said, dropping to his knee, Brienne beside him. “We can offer you our swords, if you will take them?” </span>
</p>
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